DWM 300 – Last of the Titans

The 7th Doctor is separated from the TARDIS within the bowels of a gigantic, ancient spaceship. The ship has one humanoid inhabitant, but is he really as friendly as he seems?

1 Comment

Styre
on May 7, 2016 at 9:22 PM

LAST OF THE TITANS

With thanks to Chad Moore.

As a special benefit to Doctor Who Magazine readers, and with an eye towards promoting their range to the wider Who fan audience, Big Finish released a special promotional adventure in 2001 with issue 300. Nicholas Briggs’ Last of the Titans, a half-hour adaptation of an AudioVisuals script, accompanied episode 1 of the Paul McGann premiere Storm Warning. The result is exactly what one would expect from a free sampler: a straightforward, average production with little in the way of distinguishing features.

The central conceit is very traditional: a professor genetically recreates an extinct branch of human development and, as the creature cannot understand its surroundings, it inevitably lashes out. Briggs nicely brings this concept into the future: Vilgreth, the Titanthrope, pilots a massive starship which uses whole planets for fuel. As he doesn’t understand the implications of this action, he only values his engines and their survival — there’s really nothing surprising here at all but at least it’s interesting enough to hold the attention.

Sylvester McCoy carries this play on his shoulders and does a magnificent job. This is the pre-TVM seventh Doctor, and McCoy invests the character with the same sense of weariness heard in Project: Lazarus. One gets the sense that this Doctor just wants to go home, and perceives the problem as an annoyance; indeed, he solves the situation in a matter of minutes once he’s assessed the problems. McCoy’s narration is also a joy — he has the natural inflections of a talented storyteller.

Last of the Titans is essentially a two-hander, and Nicholas Briggs provides the other character in Vilgreth. His performance, unfortunately, is rather comedic — rather than pathos he goes for the “comedy caveman” voice which sadly undercuts much of the drama. However, he does get an impressive range of emotion behind that voice — he’s undoubtedly a talented voice actor. Alistair Lock’s turn as Stelpor sounds remarkably like some of Gary Russell’s alien performances, and it serves the purpose. Lennox Greaves and Holly King round out the cast, though they do nothing more than recreate a news broadcast.

Lock also handles the sound design, which is excellent — he skillfully recreates a massive spaceship interior with all its relevant sound effects. The score is impressive as well — a different score to many that BF have released but its wind emphasis is quite effective. Unfortunately, his attempt at the theme music is less impressive, but that’s hardly a problem with the production. Briggs’ direction keeps the dialogue between himself and McCoy snappy and effective, though again, there isn’t much about this to distinguish it.

As repeated above, Last of the Titans is both a free giveaway and only 30 minutes long. As such, there’s no reason to expect greatness from the production. If this was a full release, it’d be disappointing, but given that it’s free I find the following rating entirely commendable.